http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
POLITICIANS focus their angry attention on media violence and greedy
Tinseltown marketing strategies aimed at kids, but the entertainment
conglomerates most clearly reveal their dysfunctional values not in grand
projects, but in fleeting movie moments. Consider what three
brief-but-telling scenes in recent films say about the entertainment
industry's unmistakable contempt for its audience.

In the kinky film The Cell, sultry Jennifer Lopez plays a psychotherapist
who risks her life and sanity to enter the mind of a twisted, comatose
serial killer. Smart, sexy, fearless, compassionate and successful, her
character stands out as a role model for a new generation.

Why, then, did the filmmakers find it necessary to provide a 15-second
scene showing their peerless heroine relaxing alone at home, smoking a
marijuana joint? This is not an accidental inclusion, and there is no
doubt that the character inhales. Other than providing a free commercial
for the Pot Growers of California, what would motivate the movie men to
associate so glamorous and admirable a character with an illegal habit
considered dangerous and destructive by most Americans?

One classic advertising strategy involves the association of the product
you're pushing with unusually attractive and stylish people --- and few
human beings can equal Lopez when it comes to beauty and charisma. It's
amazing that no studio honcho spotted this quick scene, without
connection to the plot or vital purpose in characterization, and objected
to its impact in undermining anti-drug messages from parents and
teachers. If the industry took seriously its corporate responsibilities
to the public, the pro-pot message would have painlessly been excised
from the film.

Lopez

The same movie contains another element that pointlessly assaults the
sensibilities of tens of millions of potential patrons. The sadistic
serial killer in The Cell (chillingly well-played by Vincent D'Onofrio)
flashes back to the origins of his psychic torment, focusing particularly
on the moment of his baptism at age 6. The scene at a riverbank,
involving a Bible-toting pastor and ecstatic, hand-waving true believers,
repeatedly reappears in connection with the most monstrous cruelty. The
movie suggests that the future killer's abusive father held him down too
long in the water, causing him later in life slowly to drown his female
kidnap victims in a huge glass tank before turning their mutilated bodies
into ghastly dolls.

Imagine, for the sake of argument, that the script for the film had
associated such behavior not with baptism, but with Bar Mitzvah or some
other ritual of a minority religion. Isn't it obvious that some executive
at the studio (New Line Pictures, in this instance) would have protested,
saying that such a gratuitous insult would have needlessly offended Jews
--- or Buddhists or Hindus? Why, then, should Baptists, who outnumber such
groups in this society many times over, receive less-sensitive
consideration?

As a matter of fact, the utterly fictitious notion of crazed, unspeakably
vicious serial killers who've been warped by traditional Christianity has
become a sick, curious cliché in today's Hollywood. For characters played
by Robert De Niro in Cape Fear, Kevin Spacey in Seven, Harry Connick Jr.
in Copycat; and Ed Harris in Just Cause;, multiple murders and brutal
torture come connected with flamboyant displays of Christian religiosity.
The cruel caricature of committed Christians - especially fundamentalists
and Pentecostals - remains a rare form of religious bigotry not only
accepted, but repeatedly promoted by Hollywood as well.

Another sort of bigotry turned up in the clumsy comedy The Crew, starring
Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Reynolds. The two veteran actors play aging
mobsters who retire to Florida with their friends, but try to recapture
their youth and vitality with one last daring caper. To facilitate the
job, they buy black-market weapons, including an oversized shotgun, from
a sleazy gun dealer. After the transaction, Dreyfuss instinctively says,
"thanks a lot," to which the firearms merchant defiantly replies, "Hey,
don't thank me. Thank the Republicans!"

The line stands out as the only political reference of any kind in the
entire movie. It also offers no explanation of how new gun
control-legislation (blocked, presumably, by those Republican rascals)
magically would stop a transaction that the movie portrays (accurately)
as already illegal.

Aside from any serious analysis of one stupid line, there's an obvious
question about the writers and producers and their audience analyses.
Surely, these show-business professionals have seen all of the national
surveys showing that more than a third of Americans proudly identify
themselves as Republicans, and more than 40% strongly support the right
to bear arms. Why would a commercial movie company (Disney, no less) take
an unnecessary risk by insulting such substantial chunks of the public
with one irrelevant, unfunny zinger that bears no connection to other
elements in the story?

No reasonable observer should exaggerate the impact of such passing
messages on the public. A few seconds of cinema isn't enough to recruit
new legions to smoke marijuana, or to seduce millions to abandon Baptist
beliefs, or to rally new support for the Al Gore campaign. Repeated
messages along similar lines, on the other hand, may exert a cumulative
influence. Advertising works by conveying the same idea again and again,
associating certain products or behaviors with fun or glamour, and movie
imagery obviously achieves a comparable impact.

The most serious question about odd inclusions so unexpectedly inserted
into big-studio films involves the motivation. No one could plausibly
argue that such films as The Cell or The Crew would earn one dime less at
the box office - or one dime more - if the edgy, questionable,
sociopolitical messages had been omitted. No one would ever leave the
theater saying he or she felt cheated because he didn't get to see
Jennifer Lopez smoking weed.

When filmmakers feature such material, they're not attempting to connect
with a mass audience, but with the Hollywood insiders who help determine
their industry status. Ordinary moviegoers may not chuckle over the
Richard Dreyfuss crack about guns and Republicans, but Rosie O'Donnell
and Susan Sarandon will laugh and cheer.

The majority of Americans may not be pro-pot and anti-Baptist, or
overwhelmingly hostile to Republicans, but such attitudes unmistakably
dominate the movie colony. The saddest part of the entire situation is
that so many otherwise brilliant artists in Tinseltown don't even realize
how profoundly they've lost touch with huge segments of American society.

The situation is unhealthy for Hollywood and menacing to the Republic. As
politicians (including Joe Lieberman and Al Gore) increasingly
understand, many Americans who long have felt alienated from government,
academia, big business and the legal system now feel similarly far
removed from the popular culture. Countless citizens complain that the
images they see in mass-media entertainment don't reflect them - and
don't respect them. Quick, passing, gratuitous elements in recent films,
even more than overtly political message movies, strongly suggest that
they are
right.

09/29/00: Remember love and marriage? 09/01/00: Should our next president be a 'Survivor' or a 'Millionaire'? 07/18/00: Why Hollywood still embraces Lieberman07/13/00: 'Peeping Tom TV' exploits loneliness06/30/00: Why we love quiz-show geeks06/14/00: Homosexual establishment is more upset by substantive challenges than savage language 05/19/00: Macho Military Makes Comeback05/02/00: Hollywood battles addiction to addiction movies 04/18/00: Film Makes Keeping the Faith Irrelevant04/12/00: Key lessons from 1960 for 2000 presidential campaign03/21/00: Oscars: Will Hollywood do its duty or follow its heart?03/03/00: Family friendly video versions would provide choice, not censorship02/18/00: Hollywood votes for liberalism (SURPRISE!) in the Oscar nomination primary01/26/00: Who is more "Twisted," Rocker or his heavy metal critics?12/23/99: Media century began with unity but ends with isolation 12/15/99:The "battle in Seattle" as a '60's flashback --- only on the surface12/01/99: Delusion and denial11/16/99: Good reason for chaotic state of American values 11/03/99: Religion is unfairly blamed for the world's wars10/06/99: Hollywood again makes drug use seem hip08/25/99: NAACP attacks the wrong TV target08/16/99: Government declares we're in a post-marriage age?